PELLAGRA SECONDARY TO BENIGN AND CARCINOMATOUS LESIONS AND DYSFUNCTION OF THE GASTRO-INTESTINAL TRACT: REPORT OF THIRTEEN CASES

Pellagra as a complication of a lesion or of dysfunction of the digestive tract is assuming greater significance in view of the increasing number of cases reported. Rolph¹ first called attention to the possibility of pellagra originating under these circumstances in 1916, when he reported a case of carcinoma of the upper third of the stomach, involving the cardiac orifice and associated with pellagra. Other instances of benign and malignant lesions with secondary pellagra have been reported by Bryan,² Bender,³ Nuzum,⁴ Joyce and Seabrook,⁵ Barnes,⁶ Elliott,⁷ Klauder and Winkelman,⁸ Cabot⁹ and one of us (P. A. O'L.).¹⁰ One of the most recent contributions from the pellagrous belt is that of Turner,¹¹ in which he reported sixteen cases of the disease associated with diverse lesions of the gastro-intestinal tract, eight of which were strictures of the rectum. One of the purposes of this report is to bring up to date the